The members,with expertise in veterinarian,virology,food safety and epidemiology,have so far visited two hospitals at the centre of the early outbreak – Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and the Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital.
The day before the team visited a museum exhibition dedicated to the early history of COVID-19.
Public access to the market – now barricaded with guards on round-the-clock duty – has been severely restricted since it was shut at the beginning of last year. Before its closure,it was a bustling market comprising hundreds of stalls divided into sections for meat,seafood and vegetables.
On December 31,2019,after four cases of a mystery pneumonia were linked to the market,it was shuttered overnight. By the end of January,Wuhan had gone into a 76-day lockdown.
Experts say the Huanan market still plays a role in tracing the origins of the virus,since the first cluster of cases was identified there.
The Geneva-based WHO said on Twitter last Thursday that the team plans to visit hospitals and markets like the Huanan Seafood Market,which was linked to many of the first cases. They also listed the Wuhan Institute of Virology and laboratories at facilities including the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control.